Agenda and minutes

None.

The Minutes of the meeting held on 8 October were approved as a true and accurate record.

a)     Law and Regulation

b)     Finance

c)     People and Business Change

Law & Regulation

Attendees:

·        Councillor Ray Truman – Cabinet Member for Licensing and Regulation

·        Gareth Price – Head of Law and Regulation

The Strategic Director – Place sent her apologies that she was unable to attend for this item.

The Head of Law & Regulation presented the Mid-Year Service Plan Update to the Committee.  The Head of Service advised that there had been a sustained level of performance within the Service Area within the first six months of the period. This was commendable for the service area, as it continued with its substantial workload despite the financial constraints.

The Sickness Absence Performance Indicator was Red, which was unfortunate but was managed in accordance with the procedures.  It did put an increased pressure on the remaining team members. This was a common problem as there was no resilience in teams anymore, those PIs that had dipped was as a result of direct correlation, as mentioned before however, the overall performance was good.  The Head of Service praised staff for their continued level of professionalism to meet the required targets.

In terms of budget, there were no major risks identified, the current year’s budget was back on track as of the end of October 2018.  There was an overspend of £15K anticipated in September but this had decreased to £8K, which meant that the service area was meeting all the requirements imposed upon them.  There were a number of service area pressures however identifying these allowed future savings for the year, therefore the Head of Service was confident the budget would remain on track.

The Cabinet Member for Licensing and Regulation thanked the Head of Service for his report and reiterated that the long term sickness was difficult to manage, however the work was still being completed to a high standard.  Other milestones included the Public Space Protection Order in the City Centre and the Gating Order in Maesglas.  There had been national recognition for the Dog Service, along with successful prosecutions of Houses in Multiple Occupation and landlords.  Premises inspection and prosecutions relating to the underage serving of alcohol was also at a high standard despite reductions in resources.

Members asked the following:

·        Members asked whether there was a common theme to the sickness, the Head of Service advised that it was not work related stress.  The long term absences were due to serious illness.  Work related sickness absences were few and far between and nothing needed to be addressed from a work point of view.  The Policies in place covered how the absences were overseen with return to work forms and reasonable adjustments recommended by occupational health put in place, such as car parking spaces or phased return to work. 

Members felt that provision of car parking spaces for staff returning to work with access difficulties was to be commended. 

·        A Member referred to the Executive Summary regarding tourism in the area; visitor economy had doubled since 2006.  Whilst these were excellent figures, it was asked whether tourism was viewed as  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

a)       Forward Work Programme Update (Appendix 1)

b)       Action Sheet (Appendix 2)

c)       Information Reports

d)       Scrutiny Letters

a)     Forward Work Programme Update

The Scrutiny Adviser presented the Forward Work Programme Update to the Committee and outlined the Reports for the next two meetings and the Briefings to be arranged.

She advised that following the Briefing upon the Condition of the Highway Network held in September, the presentation had been circulated to all Members of the Committee.

The Committee agreed that the Housing Briefing that had been scheduled to be arranged in December be arranged for January 2019 but not until after the 14 January Committee meeting, when the Committee would be considering the Medium Term Financial Plan Budget Proposals for 2019-20.

b)     Action Sheet

The Scrutiny Adviser presented the Action Sheet and advised the Committee that as indicated in the table, two items had been actioned and the information circulated to Members of the Committee accordingly and the outstanding three items would be chased and provided shortly and remain on the Action sheet until Members received the information.

c)     Information Reports

There were no Information Reports to bring to the Committee’s attention.

d)     Scrutiny Letters

There we no scrutiny letters to report to the Committee.